Jesti and Miriam Danos face the toll of Hurricane Isaac every day when they sit on their daughter's porch. A year ago, Isaac's winds pushed the waters of Barataria Bay into the communities of Lafitte, Crown Point and Barataria, inundating their home --again.

"I look at that house and I tell that old house, 'You know I miss you,''' said Miriam Danos, 74. "That house got a lot of memories.''

Although the damaged structure will be razed and a new house will rise up in its place, the Danos and their neighbors in irrepressible lower Jefferson Parish appear to be back on their feet a year after the storm. Yet deep emotional wounds abound, as does a suspicion that the world has forgotten them.

"The people here still need help in the worst way,'' resident Diane Miller said. "We were hit just as hard as everybody else. Some of the people here, like myself, feel like we are the last ones on the totem pole, lost in the system.''

Parish Councilman Ricky Templet , whose district includes the communities, said he still sees the frustration. "Each storm takes the wind out of residents,'' he said. "They are very resilient and have come back, but it gets harder.''

It is an area that finds itself on the outside looking in, as their coastal neighbors in Plaquemines, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes secure flood protection projects. And the specter of huge flood insurance premiums, triggered by federal reforms to end subsidies, threatens to drive elderly, working-poor and even middle class families away from the fishing enclave.

"The federal government for whatever reason has ignored Lafitte,'' Mayor Tim Kerner said. "The Corps of Engineers talks about doing things in St. John. They talk about doing things in Braithwaite and part of Plaquemines Parish. But for whatever reason, they've turned their backs on the people of lower Lafitte, Crown Point, Barataria and Grand Isle.''

Last year, Kerner estimated, as many as 300 homes in lower Jefferson took on water. Afterward, residents turned to each other and nonprofits to rebuild. A year later, the area is about 95 percent recovered, the mayor said, except for a few families whom the town is still trying to help.

Nonprofits gutted more than 130 houses, placed tarpaulins on 80 others and provided other help to 55 families in lower Lafitte, Crown Point and Barataria. Catholic Charities, Friend Ships Unlimited of Lake Charles, Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma Disaster Relief and Disaster Relief at Work joined in the effort.

After flooding four times in the past eight years, the Danos' home is on the demolition list. They've salvaged a few mementos and photos that are now in storage. Other household goods are crammed inside a camper and their daughter's house.

Married for 56 years and both in their 70s, Jesti and Miriam Danos have gotten used to starting over. Hurricane Rita damaged the house in 2005, but the couple used their private insurance instead of seeking help through the Louisiana Road Home program.

"I didn't want to take none of that. I felt like I had insurance. I got money from that for the re-do,'' Miriam Danos said. "They had more people worse off than what we were. So I didn't apply for it.''

As more storms came, they again turned to their insurance. "Every three years, I got new furniture and a new inside the house,'' Miriam Danos said. "It was no use crying because there weren't nothing you could do ... nature.''

Now insurance will help the Danos qualify for a community development block grant that will pay for the new house, Kerner said. "We worked very hard with all kinds of groups and organizations to try to make sure folks were covered,'' Kerner said.

He's still trying to bring home Diane Miller, who commutes daily from Marrero to Lafitte, where her grandchildren, ages 5 and 7, attend school. Her trailer caught fire and partially burned during Isaac forcing the family of seven into two rooms. They relocated to a camper on Bayou Segnette, before Miller and the children moved into the Marrero rental eight months ago.

But rental assistance from FEMA will run out at the end of the year, and Miller doesn't know what she'll do next. She didn't have insurance on her trailer.

"I have a lawn mower and a weedeater and I've been cutting a few yards here and there to keep my head above water,'' she said. "It's what puts gas in my car. It's what feeds the kids.''

Even with her own home in ruin, Miller, 62, helped her neighbors. But the uncertainty that lies ahead a year after the storm is wearing her down.

"I wish we could all have this nightmare over,'' she said as tears streamed down her face. " We just want to come home like everyone else.''

But what the lower Jefferson communities desperately want is levee protection. It's an issue that sticks in the craw of residents, who see floodwalls being erected in Plaquemines and Harvey and plans to bolster hurricane protection in LaPlace and Reserve after one disaster.

"They ain't worried about us here and Grand Isle. They raise all those people up front, and they don't even flood,'' resident Martha Lemoine said.

Kerner has lobbied federal and state officials for years for hurricane protection. He said the corps signs off on projects for other areas -- a $10.3 billion levee for Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, floodwalls along the Harvey Canal and in Plaquemines Parish - that make lower Jefferson more vulnerable to flooding.

"I don't know how much more can they take,'' he said of his constituents. "We need to expedite what we're working on to provide levees for the area and to raise houses. The fact that they don't have a whole lot of levee protection installed has got to scare them half to death, to think they'd have to go through that devastation again.''

After Isaac registered as the fourth or fifth flooding event for some lower Jefferson residents, they pleaded with the Parish Council in April to allocate money to elevate their homes. The council agreed to designate millions of relief dollars from Hurricanes Gustav, Isaac and Ike for the work in communities such as theirs outside the hurricane protection system. Parish officials said more than 1,200 properties in that area have a history of repetitive or severe flooding.

Residents also are watching the continued debate over reforms to the federal flood insurance program, which would eliminate a subsidy and impose eye-popping premium increases. Kerner first raised the issue in the spring after questioning lower Jefferson's flood zone designation in preliminary maps late last year.

"That will add salt to the wound,'' he said.

Rebuilding the coast and providing protection for residents is not only critical for Jefferson Parish but for the state, Templet said.

"If we don't keep fortifying lower Jefferson Parish as a priority, the gulf is going to be at the back door of west bank of Jefferson Parish and New Orleans,'' he said.